NEW DELHI: A UPS cargo aircraft and a Copa Airlines passenger jet collided at Miami International Airport in Florida on Saturday night, damaging the nose of the passenger aircraft. No injuries were reported in the incident, which took place as one aircraft was arriving and the other was preparing for departure.Footage filmed by a passenger aboard the Copa Airlines Boeing 737 showed visible damage to the nose of the aircraft following the collision with the UPS Boeing 767. Images and videos circulating on social media showed the aftermath of the incident.Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmed that the two aircraft had made contact at the airport. Greg Chin, communications director at Miami International Airport, said the collision occurred at around 9:15 pm local time at the intersection of two taxiways.“At approximately 9:15 p.m., an arriving aircraft and a departing aircraft made contact with each other at the intersection of two taxiways. There are no reported injuries and flights are being directed to other taxiways, so there is no impact to airport operations at this time,” Chin said in a statement to CBS News Miami.
What happened between the two aircraft?
The UPS Boeing 767 was operating Flight 358, scheduled to fly from Miami to Bogota, Colombia, while the Copa Airlines Boeing 737 was operating Flight 427, arriving from Panama City, Panama.According to a post by AZ Intel on X, air traffic control audio from the incident included the remark: “Yeah, we went too far and he clipped us with the wing.”AZ Intel also shared a video showing damage to one of the aircraft after the collision.“Damage on one of the planes at Miami International Airport after minor collision involving UPS Boeing 767 and Copa Airlines 737,” the post said.The exact circumstances leading to the collision were not immediately clear.
Incident comes amid nationwide US flight disruption
The collision comes as airports across the United States continue to deal with delays and cancellations following a nationwide disruption to air traffic control systems on Friday.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had ordered a nationwide ground stop after communication problems affected multiple air traffic control centres, halting nearly all departing flights for almost five hours.Although the ground stop was lifted on Friday evening, airlines continued to face operational disruptions as they worked to reposition aircraft and flight crews.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that flight operations would take time to return to normal. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said on Saturday that US air travel was expected to largely recover by the end of Sunday, November 15.Federal officials attributed the disruption to problems involving ageing air traffic control infrastructure, including switches and routers that became overloaded with data, resulting in inconsistencies in radar and communication systems.